Pope Francis is carrying out a revolution in the Vatican. It will also be a revolution in the world, setting it right because it is upside down. The revolution of Jesus of Nazareth: "The last will be first, and the first will be last."

In 2013 there was a resurgence of populism in the U.S., with the enormous popularity of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and the victory of Bill de Blasio in the New York mayor's race. And populists gained a powerful ally in Pope Francis.

It has been a tough five years since [Obama won the presidential election], and there will be three more to his presidency. But I think he is the best president since Kennedy, or perhaps even since FDR. Here are a few of my reasons for saying this.

Advent is about the choice to nurture a world reflective of divine justice and individual choice. To participate in a challenge to oppressive powers. Mary chose to participate, to nurture a force pushing against her experience of an occupying empire and furthering equality among peoples.

Such a story is raising hope among activists and progressive Catholics, many of whom have left the church behind but still recognize its potential power as a source for good in many parts of the world.

I sat down to discuss a wide range of topics with the idol of my high school days, Noam Chomsky, in early October. This was before the release of Evangelii Gaudium, but after a lot of encouraging words about economic justice from Pope Francis.

While the Argentine pontiff weighs in on diverse issues in his groundbreaking interview, he clearly emerges as a pastor who is profoundly influenced by what have been two competing tendencies in the Latin American church.

Matthew Fox offers advice to Pope Francis on dozens of hot-button issues that were mostly silenced by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Imagine an issue that you might care about and it is here. Birth control. Pre-marital sex. Ordaining women. Looking to more than the Bible and Church tradition (nature, science, creative arts, imagination) for God's revelation.

Over the past 10 years I have found myself doing two things over and over again: Coming out and having conversations about the so-called "clobber passages" relating to homosexuality and the Bible. I have grown weary of those conversations.

A top Salvadoran church official says the elevation of Cardinal José Maria Bergoglio to Pope Francis could advance the plodding campaign for sainthood for Msgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, an outspoken peace advocate and possibly the country's most revered figure, assassinated for his views on March 24, 1980.

The new pope favors a modest lifestyle without chauffeured limousines or ostentatious palaces. I am sure that his concern for the poor is sincere. Yet, he is not going to do anything radical to reduce poverty.